Hi guys. If you'd ever have asked me if I'd have bought a Casio keyboard I have just laughed. That is until I discovered the WK3500. Wowee! this is fantastic!

Now let me tell you I've passed the big five-O and have been playing piano/organ/keyboards all my life, everything from Vox Continental to Fender Rhodes stage piano/Wurlitzer stage piano/acoustic pianos/Hammond tonewheels - you name it.

I originally intended to buy the Yamaha DGX505 until I tried it. It's about as inspiring as a wet weekend. Something then just made me have a look and listen at Casio's European website. I expected them to sound like some awful Bontempi organ or something! The Hammond rotary sound on the WK3500 made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!! I had years of playing Hammonds for cabaret backing. What a tool, what endless possibilities. I may need to come back to you all here for some of the 'tech' bits though! I raise my glass to Casio.

Congrats on your new keyboard. I too own a Casio WK-3500. It is an awsome keyboard, and Casio deserves a pat on the back for this model. They did an excellent job with the sounds, and even added features that I wouldn't expect to see on this type of keyboard. I'm still amazed that the Casio WK3000 and WK3500 will allow you to load new samples into the board. The sample memory is a bit limited, but geez what a great feature to have. Plus the drawbars, and smart media storage was a very nice addition. The only downside I find is that they dropped the ability record user styles.

Squeak

Also, be sure to check out our Casio forum at : http://www.originalz.com/casio/casio_bbs/

we have links to hundreds of samples and rhythms...all free!

Yes, it was the drawbar feature that finally made up my mind to buy. As I said, I was quite amazed at the recreation (albeit limited) of those fabulous tonewheel memories. Thank you for the link to the other site too!

I do hope later in the year to get some music online. If any of you have done this already I'd like to have a listen.

Tony.

I guess I've been spoiled by the real thing since I use a C3 and 122 leslie every week. I wasn't very impressed with the drawbar organs and the leslie sim. Very soon I will be the proud owner of a fairly used Roland VK-8M for my organ needs.